Like A Rock

Like A Rock

Last week I introduced a new construction project to you. The project was entitled Lets Build a Church. As I outlined that project I finished by listing seven things that we could do that would help build our church. This week I would like to expand on one of those seven points. Id like to talk about the first one which was:

Be willing to witness and let your life be a witness to others

Todays call to worship is all about building our lives on the rock of our salvation. That rock is Jesus Christ. He is described for us as the Corner Stone. We are also described as Living Stones built on Him. So if we are to follow the scriptural design for building our church and our individual Christian lives we must lay ourselves on the cornerstone that is Jesus Christ.

We must then be witnesses to the benefits of building on such a foundation. Now last week I talked about my poor construction abilities and how that dog house I tried to build ended up looking like any thing but a dog house. Well before I met Jesus my life kind of looked liked that dog house I had built.

My life was all wrong. My design was all haphazard. I had built my life using all kinds of different materials with no standard lengths or widths. My fasteners were all different too. There were all kinds of different nails and glues and hinges that I had used to try to keep my life together to resemble something strong and useful but in reality it was poorly constructed and looked a mess.

You see before I met Jesus I was like the man building his house on the sand. The sand would shift and so would I as I tried to keep my balance all while trying to build something solid out of my life. I had forgotten that we need to build our lives on the corner stone of our faith, Jesus Christ.

I would like to share with you today about how Jesus taught me to trust Him with the design and construction of my life since I obviously had made a mess of it. I would like to demonstrate this to you by exercising the first point I made last week about how to build a church by witnessing to you about the life changing power and soul saving love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is what is called a testimony. We all have heard and may have used that word before and we know it as a legal word used in courts of law.

Testimony means that the words spoken are true and reflect the facts correctly. It also means that the testimony can be challenged by cross-examination in order to disprove or clarify specific points or details. Well you now can be the judge and you will hear my testimony and you can cross-examine it and see if the truth that I speak holds up.

I now present myself as your witness to what Jesus Christ can do when a life is surrendered to him.

1 Peter 3:15-16

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Scripture teaches us that we should always be ready to give the REASON for the HOPE that we have in Christ. Being ready is what being a Christian is all about for we do not know the day or the hour that Jesus will return but we wait in patient hope.

I will share with you why it is that I hope and now you will know the reason.

Early Background

I was born and raised in Wallaceburg to active Roman Catholic parents Ray and Janice Aarssen. I was the second of five children. We were a busy typically dysfunctional family for the 1960s era. Our parents made us sit in the front pew every Sunday and made us go to confession every Saturday. I think that was how they created their alone time.

In grade four I beat up a Nun

We had a split three-four class.

My younger brother was in my class that year.

In typical authoritarian style they felt no need to inform me.

My brother was ordered to take his books and everything out of the classroom.

I guess I snapped and I got into a tug of war with my brothers arms in front of the class. My brother broke away and returned to his seat but I was dragged into the hallway.